Tribes in Ancient India c54.27

c54.27

The first epigraphic mention of the Vaṅgas is probably made in the Maharauli Iron Pillar Inscription (*C.I.I.*, Vol. III, pp. 141ff.), where the mighty King Candra is said to have ‘in battle in the Vaṅga countries turned back with his breast the enemies who uniting together came against him.’ H. P. Śāstrī identified this King Candra with King Candravarman of the Allahabad Pillar Inscription, and with the king of the same name of Pokhrana, which he located in Marwar in Rajputana. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri and S. K. Chatterjee, however, identify Pokhrana or Puṣkaraṇa with a village of the same name on the Dāmodara river in the Bankura district of Bengal, some 25 miles east of the Susunia Hill on which the record of Candravarman is inscribed.¹ The Vaṅgas are mentioned in Kālidāsa’s *Raghu-vamśa*, where Raghu is said to have conquered the Vaṅgas after he had finished his task with the Suhmas, and then to have planted his victorious banner in the midstream of the Ganges (Canto IV, 35-6). This passage shows that in the age of Kālidāsa (c. 400 A.D.) the Vaṅgas were distinguished, as in earlier days, from the Suhmas. It is likely that the realm of the Vaṅgas abutted on the Ganges, which probably formed the dividing line between the two countries.